NB: Audio does not start on this video until 4.26.

Inspired by a Seamus Heaney poem, Catherine will explore “navigating the marvellous”, the challenge of being open in higher education. To be in higher education is to learn in two worlds: the open world of informal learning and the predominantly closed world of the institution. As higher education moves slowly, warily, and unevenly towards openness, students deal daily with the dissonance between these two worlds; developing different skills, practices and identities in different learning spaces. Both students and educators make choices about the extent to which they learn, teach, share and interact in bounded and open spaces. If, as Joi Ito has said, openness is a “survival trait” for the future, how do we facilitate this process of opening? The task is one not just of changing practices but also of changing culture; we can learn much from other movements for justice, equality and social change.

What does it mean to create intelligent machines? What does it mean to create intelligent teaching machines? What does this mean in turn when we talk about using these technologies to create intelligent humans? A romp through literature and the cultural history of ed-tech to talk about teaching machines and monsters.

Both talks were powerful and I wonder if that was because they both took a ‘story-telling’ approach.

Catherine talked about levels of openness, quoting Jim Groom as saying that ‘Openness is an ethos, not a license’. We cannot know who will benefit from the resources we share, but we have to take the risk. I don’t think we should underestimate this risk for our students and have discussed the pedagogy of risk elsewhere on this blog. I don’t think Catherine underestimates the risk.

The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise
Were all at prayers inside the oratory
A ship appeared above them in the air.

The anchor dragged along behind so deep
It hooked itself into the altar rails
And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill,

A crewman shinned and grappled down the rope
And struggled to release it. But in vain.
‘This man can’t bear our life here and will drown,’

The abbot said, ‘unless we help him.’ So
They did, the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back
Out of the marvellous as he had known it.

She used this poem to explain that things that are so normal to us may be marvelous and strange to others – so strange that they cannot breathe – and that the dichotomy of formal and informal learning can make students feel ‘other’ and unable to breathe. She believes that as educators we need to try to understand the spaces that students occupy – physical, bounded online (e.g. VLEs) and open online spaces – and what is possible in these spaces to ensure that students can ‘breathe’ in them all. She then shared many stories with us of the ways in which she and her students are working to come to grips with the process of openness in education.

Audrey also took a storytelling approach. She described herself as a folklorist who is interested in hidden and lost stories – stories from history, literature and science, which she weaves together to illustrate her point – in this case that monsters have been created in the name of Ed-Tech. She drew on the poetry of Walt Whitman and Lord Byron, the history of the Luddites, the science of B.F. Skinner’s teaching machines, the work of Ayn Rand and Mary Shelley’s story Frankenstein, to make a compelling case for the dangers we face from technological monsters which she believes we have created through a lack of care and thought. Near the end of her talk Audrey left us with a quote from Hannah Arendt:

Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it.

She noted that in an age when many jobs will be replaced by automation, we must love and care for our machines lest they become monsters.

Whilst listening to both speakers, I was struck by the power of a story and was reminded of the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who in this Ted talk explains, from personal experience, the danger of the single story and says:

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

This is not a video, but an image. I have provided a link to the video above

Both Catherine and Audrey seemed to be aware of alternative perspectives; Catherine that her students have ‘other’ perspectives and different stories, and Audrey that stories are multi-faceted and that we can confuse the characters within stories.

As listeners to stories (and keynotes :-)), we have a responsibility to be aware of alternative perspectives and to engage critically with the stories, particularly since they can be so powerful in getting across a point.

Related

3 Responses

Thank you, Jenny, for sharing our #altc keynote stories and for your insights. I invited people to think about whether they had ever felt unable to “breathe” in an institution or learning space. Several people told me afterward that this was a meaningful reflection for them. Our connection to our own Otherness, our own vulnerabilities, can make us more aware as educators. I believe it can inform our pedagogies in meaningful ways, particularly with respect to open and connected learning. The complexities of identity and power will operate in all learning spaces — whether we explicitly engage with them or now.

There were many people at the conference, I am sure, who may have answered “no” to my question. And that is important. As educators, ideally we all strive to See our students, to invite them to Be in the learning spaces we create together. It is deep work for each of us. But for educators who have never felt marginalised themselves, this can be even more challenging — and, of course, some may miss it altogether.

Catherine – that’s a really helpful comment – thank you. For me feeling unable ‘to breathe’ in an institution or learning space seems to be quite a regular occurrence and I agree that this is tied up with the complexities of identity and power. And I agree that if others answered ‘no’ to your question – this is important, because that is what stops my story or your story from being the ‘single’ story. Raising awareness of the stories of others and the ‘otherness’ of these stories, as you did in your keynote, is as you say important.

I was so pleased that ALTC live streamed the keynotes and I was able to hear you speak – but also pleased that your talk was recorded, as I listened to it again. You gave me so much to think about. It was great🙂

Thanks, Jenny🙂 There was a little hitch with the audio on YouTube recording at the start, I know. Martin Hawksey said that he will post the full recording from another source, so I will let you know when it is there. The beginning of the presentation was just another story🙂 about growing up in New York City and early lessons about difference and power. Thanks again for your post — I always enjoy our connections.